


Aperture Castle

by Slickster46



Category: Portal (Video Game), Portal 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-04 19:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slickster46/pseuds/Slickster46
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Princess and her companion Continue through the castle in search of the mystical object to bring the castle back to the surface but what else will they unearth in the awful queen's throne room.</p>
          </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A man lay bleeding on the ground in the shadow of a moon lit tower. A shuttering cough escaped his mouth. His eyes turned back to the castle doors. The palace he’d just managed to escape from was home to a feared witch queen who kept a beautiful princess as her captive. Many knights charged in hopeful they’d win the love of the woman by saving her from her plight, but none of them ever got very far with the castle’s deadly residents on patrol, and this young soldier was no exception.

A large bird swooped over the knight constantly. He watched it make it’s decent towards him swinging back and forth like pendulum, before finally landing. The bird was now a woman with piercing glowing red eyes that m In the pale moonlight you could see her full lips and body with an exotic darker complexion. A temptress in true form stood before him.

“Well how pathetic. You barely lasted ten minutes. Now look at you.” She shook her head and looked him over. He was quivering and coughing on the ground. This knight was as good as dead as far as she could see.

“You have no one to blame but yourself. Let me guess you got taken in by the sweet song of those white harpy ladies, right before they began to rip you to pieces. You men are too gullible.”

“You foul monster.” He finally coughed up. He began to pick himself off of the ground. He stood with weak knees to face this creature.

“I am not yet done. I will fight my way through a thousand more swarms of harpies and monsters if it means I get win the hand of the princess. Her love shall keep me going, it keeps the blood in my heart flowing! I’d even face the fires of hell themselves.” he affirmed. He stood tall well over the height of this she bird.

“Oh what a stirring speech!” she remarked sarcastically. She clapped her hands together in a mocking applause. The soldier became angry and drew his sword at her. He placed the tip right at her neck.

“I’ll cut your head off here you harpy she –demon!” he growled. 

“Harpy? She-demon certainly, but I am no mere harpy.” She took flight spreading her wings before perching herself into a large knarred dead tree. The moon light caught her dazzling red feathers and blood red talons. Black feathers outlined her gossamer wings.

“I am a dragon!” she proclaimed. Flapped her wings unleashing wave’s heat and flames. She looked down to catch a glimpse of the soldier’s face. She was sure he’d be completely mortified at her revelation. However the soldier’s face wasn’t at all contorted in fear.

“You are no dragon. The dragon that guards this castle is said to be of great size with sapphire scales and nightmare blue eyes. You are just some sort of confused fire harpy. Now I command you to stop playing games, show me to the princess or I will strike you down here and now. You have until my count of three.” He imposed.

“’Nightmare blue’ what does that even mean? I think you just made that up. It is nice complement. I’ll have to tell him that sometime.” She continued to taunt.

“One…”

“And I am a dragon mind you. Just a smaller, fluffier human shaped dragon.”

“Two…”

“What are you even going to do? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m up in a tree!” She laughed.

“Three.” For all her taunting she hadn’t noticed the warrior preparing a bow and arrow until the shaft of the arrow had passed completely through her right wing in a spray of blood and feathers. She lost her balance and fell from the tree will a dull thump. The hero confidently strode over to the wounded bird whose wings were spread across the dirt. The hole in her wing had already started to heal itself but the burning pain was still there.

“Now you foul she demon, are you ready to give in to my demands.” She looked at the warrior who once again loomed over with his sword. Her eyes burned with anger.

“Fine. You want the fires of hell? I’ll give you the next best thing.” She hissed. In a swift motion she hooked the hero by his arms with her powerful talons.

“Away we go!” She said quickly accenting into the sky. She flew straight back into the castle’s twisted hallways and corridors with her unwilling passenger struggling through the entire flight. She made sure to twist and turn and buck, nearly fly into walls and make deep swooping dives, just to insure that the hero’s ride was painful as possible. Then as they made it to a grand corridor with a great master stair way she expanded her wings to catch some drag and slow down as she dropped the hero right into the middle of the great hall and swooped back up high into the rafters above out of sight.

“Good luck brave hero.” She cackled “You’ll need it!”

“Get back here and face me you coward! Don’t hide now!” The solider yelled into the rafters with wild abandon. From behind him something large began to stir with massive sweeping tail and great big blue eyes. The hero slowly turned around. He was faced with a pair of massive blue eyes and razor sharp fangs. The dragon had a human like face with blonde hair and a nose, but a monster everything else. He was covered with scales and sharp spines ran down his back into his tail.

“Oh, it’s just another hero.” The dragon yawned. “Well it’s nice to meet you I guess. I’m Wheatley the dragon. I know I must look really strange. Mum had a thing for mystical creatures and my dad really didn’t care so…”

“Don’t tell him your life story! Kill the bastard! Eat him up! Burn him to a crisp!” The lady bird called from the ceiling.

“Be quiet you horrendous she demon before I come up there ,cut off your head and mount it on my wall!” the hero snapped.

“Hey you don’t talk to my little sister that way!” Wheatley fumed. He coiled his tail around the hero and lifted him to his face.

“Wait, that bird is your sister? So she really is a dragon?” the solider asked dumbfounded.

“Actually no. She’s a phoenix. Mum wasn’t a big fan of commitment . Poor bird had to be raised in a dragon’s nest and all the other hatchlings use to tease her, call her a runt, try to rip her wings off and eat her alive. You know regular bullying. Or when she lived with humans threw rocks at her.”

“Don’t tell him my life story either! Just kill him! Why isn’t he dead yet?” She called again.

“Well it’s rude just to roast people to a crisp without a little conversation. He seems like an ok bloke. Besides I’ve already eaten I was thinking about saving him for breakfast.”

“No monster is going to eat me! I’m going to slay you and marry the princess!” he affirmed once more.

“Oh yeah you’re going to slay me. Not the first time I heard that one. All those skeletons in the corner were gonna slay me and my dinner, he was pretty well convinced that he was gonna slay me he even had a ring picked out for the princess, but seriously do you want to have this fight now? It’s late, wouldn’t you much rather prefer to die in the morning. I don’t understand what’s with you guys anyway. All ready to die for this girl you haven’t even met. Humans are the silliest little things. But you do all have great taste.” 

“Besides we’re all pretty sure the princess plays for a different team if you catch my drift.” The voice called again.

“She is a very handsome woman honestly.” Wheatley agreed. “And she doesn’t talk much at all, and she always looks mad. I say ‘hello’, she looks mad. I tell her ‘good morning’ she looks mad. There’s no reason to be rude to me! I’m not the one who’s forcing you here against your will. I’m just the messenger. I don’t want to be here anymore than she does! Bloody humans.”

“Speaking of bloody humans.” The phoenix finally swooped down and fluttered over Wheatley’s head and perched herself atop of one of his horns.

“I couldn’t help but notice this one isn’t bloody or burnt or anything remotely close to dead. Why is that Wheatley?” She knocked on his head with her talons. 

“I’ll repeat it to you Monica since you didn’t hear it the first time. That, my dear little sister, is rude. Just because I’m a monster doesn’t mean I’m uncivilized. “ 

“No see, that’s exactly what that’s supposed to mean but you, you just can’t seem to follow through on the beastly part.” She fluttered from his horn, swopped and plucked the hero from his grasp with one powerful talon. Monica, as she was called, held the hero by his throat. She proved to be much stronger than the hero originally had assumed. She hovered in the air and continued to talk.

“Now there is a number of things I can think of right now to kill this guy right of the top of my head. I could ignite myself and let him burn alive for one…” the hero kicked and squirmed trying to break free of this wicked woman.

“I could crush his windpipe in my claws and let him choke on his own blood and bones. Or, and this is my favorite, I could fly him high into the air and drop him and watch as he falls and flails helplessly before finally hitting the ground with nice bloody ‘splat’.” With that she unclenched her talons hoping to reenact her last little murder fantasy. She watched eagerly almost giddy to see him hit the floor. But before the hero could reach the ground a large clawed hand interrupted his fall.

“Monica!” the dragon roared. He put the hero down on the ground before changing the phoenix. The hero took this time while the both of the monsters were distracted to charge up the stairs to the top of the tower where the princess would be waiting for him.

“Oh no.” She said trying to turn and fly away. But Wheatley caught one of her long skinny black legs and dangled her in front of his face.

“What was that! You were actually going to kill him! Well not actually because phoenixes can’t kill people. But still you had the intention!” He chastized. Monica sneered.

“Stop calling me that! I am not a phoenix! I am a dragon I might be a small dragon but I am a dragon!” she fumed.

“You were raised by dragons, but you’re not a dragon. You’re a bloody bird that can’t die and can bring other people back to life. And you happen to be able to manipulate flames, but make no mistake you are not nor have you ever have been or will be a dragon.”

“Then , I guess that means I’m not your sister either! Which is fine. Who wants to be a sibling to a half-witted dragon!” she hissed and fluttered off into the castle’s twisted mazes and corridors.

“Fine then leave you feathery little headache and do not come fluttering back.” Wheatley called. 

“Ugh, such a bloody drama queen I swear, but that’s all women right mate?” he looked down to see that the knight had vanished.

“Hey where’d you go?” he lifted up his tail and looked all around his immediate area. 

“Foul beast!” Wheatley heard the hero called. He turned around to see that the hero was coming down the stairs from the princess’s tower.

“Oh there you are! What happened? Did she give you the angry face too? I know I’d be upset if someone barged into my room at this hour.”

“Do I look like a fool to you? Do I seem as though I’m an idiot?” his face was red with anger.

“No you just seem very determined.”

“The princess is not up there! That room is empty! Now tell me where she really is.”

“What do you mean she’s not up there? She’s got to be up there. There’s nowhere else she could be.” Just then the castle began quake horribly. The solid stone walls cracked and shifted. The rafters began to fall to the shifting floor. A piece of the roof fell right on Wheatley’s head

“What’s happening? Are you doing this?” the hero accused.

“If I had to guess I’d assume this whole castle is about to fall part. But I’m not going to stick around to find out. Farewell mate, I’ve got to find Monica before this place completely crumbles . Nice meeting you.” The dragon lifted his entire mass and started to walk out of the chamber leaving the confused little hero behind.

A long shriek from a woman echoed through the castle in piercing waves. Wheatley had to cover his ears. The shaking gained magnitude as the whole castle seemed to sway back and forth. The floor groaned as he tried to walk faster. It’s compromised condition couldn’t handle his weight.

“Oh come on, I’m not that fat. I’ve been on a diet. I only eat 20 humans a day instead of the usual 35.” But despite his cut backs the floor simply couldn’t hold the dragon. It cracked and crumbled and finally fell apart before Wheatley could even try to escape. He fell through it with a large thud, the shock of the fall causing him to black out. 

As he lay unconscious, he wasn’t able to see the entire castle with all of its inhabitants and heroes sink straight into the ground. When he finally did wake up the following morning the castle was far deep underground. It quickly spread that the evil witch queen whole ruled with fear over the castle, had been killed by a mighty warrior. With her dying breath she used a spell to hide her precious castle from those who might have dismantled the last standing structure of her terror. Some said she did it of pure bitterness over being defeated. Either they were all trapped down there in the darkness for what appeared to be forever. And the castle became even more terrifying to roam. No one could find the princess and worse yet a way out of this nightmare.

It became so desperate that even the castle’s original inhabitants couldn’t bare to stay there any longer. Many tried to escape and flee but one particularly bumbling dragon couldn’t even give a thought to leaving until he found his travel buddy.

“Monica! Monica? Come on you bloody bird, come out. We need to get out of here before something really bad happens.” He spent weeks roaming the castle, calling her name. For all the grief she caused him she was still his sister. He asked around but no one had seen her or heard from after the castle sunk. If she was killed in the incident she should have just have been reborn in fire and with her powerful wings she could easily escape to anywhere in the castle. But it was if she had vanished into thin air. Wheatley couldn’t give up though, she just had to be around there somewhere.

On one particularly long night of searching he came across the last little hero he faced right before the castle’s decent. The knight was worn and half crazed from trying to escape from the castle’s walls and much older. He’d seen the most horrifying sights imaginable. And all the while as he saw more and more gruesome and goriest scenes all he could think of is what that bird said before plopping him in here. It wasn’t hell but it surely the next best thing. He had begun to hear voices in his mind and started writing warnings to other heroes on the walls to try and spare him his fate.

“Oh, it’s you!” Wheatley exclaimed. “Could barely recognize you with that beard and all that shaking you’re doing. Are humans supposed to do that?”

“What do you want with me beast? Are you here to finally end this misery?” He seemed almost pleading.

“Well, to be honest mate you don’t look that appetizing. If I were a little more desperate maybe. But quick question; remember that crazy fire bird that dropped you into my lair? She wanted to kill you and everything? She had like red feathers and black plumage in her chest. Her legs are black also but her claws are red. So she has this sort of very intimidating color scheme of red and black is basically what I’m trying to get across. Except for her face though. Her face is brown or black as you humans would call her. Which is weird by the way. Are you so color blind that you can’t tell brown from black? Bloody humans. Anyway she has like black hair too. Have you seen her around anywhere?”

“Your sister you mean?” The hero replied. How could he forget the woman who brought him into this outlandish castle? 

“Yes her! Exactly! Brilliant do you know where she is?”

“She fled that night. Escaped… tried to I think, can’t remember clearly anymore.” He replied in his own broken way.

“She left without me? That’s so unlike her. Well not really, she’d do that anyone else in a heartbeat. But she wouldn’t do that to me. I raised that little chick from her hatching day. All this time I’ve been searching and that little brat and she’s out there, on the outside, free as a bird! Well, you understand what I mean. Well if that’s the way she wants it fine! As soon as I get out of here I’ll never deal with that feathery diva again! I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my chest. Now just the matter of getting out of here.” He pondered. He wandered off once again leaving the once impressive hero behind. 

“Go on you fearsome monster. It will be many more moons before you know the taste of freedom.” The hero mumbled cryptically under his breath before disappearing back into the castle to be forgotten.

In a dungeon in some far off corner of the dark palace, a woman was waking up from her very long and magically imposed sleep. Her mind slowly pulled itself out the thick fog of unconsciousness. She sat up in her little cot of a bed to look around. The room was absolutely bare, with a few shackles and a bucket and a metal plate. There weren’t even any windows or obvious doors where she could get her bearings in the castle.

“How long have I been….” She tried not to talk too often. Her royal ministers made point of telling her how unfeminine and unattractive her voice was. 

Princesses are to be seen and not heard. They’d make her repeat until her throat was sore and the negative reinforcement was enough to make her think about what was really important to say out loud.

Suddenly it all came flooding back to her; how she was trapped in the evil witch queen’s clutches, how the queen made he solve endless puzzles, how she finally got free of her confines and went to face the witch queen. She won the battle but of course, the queen wasn’t a fair sport.

“So she just locked me up again.” But this time there didn’t appear to be a way out. 

“Hello? Is anyone there? Could you open the door? I could use a little help out here.” A voice called from beyond the solid stone walls.

Door? What door? She thought. She looked around to try and see if there was some sort of secret panel. There were all sorts of secret passages and nooks to discover, though most of them normally lead to your doom when it came to this castle. 

“Are you in there? Please open the door. It’s very important.” He called again. She listened closely to where the voice was coming from. She got up from her bed and wandered around the room until she found one random stone brick that stuck out from the wall. It was an obvious switch. She simply pushed it into the position it should have been in and the door revealed itself sliding open. 

“Gah!” Wheatley exclaimed. The woman was looking a bit worse for wear. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she had dark rings around her eyes. Her complexion was a bit like wet desert sand and her eyes were as grey and hollow as fog. She had a perpetual pout frozen on her face. She was wearing male peasant clothes with no corset or proper bindings to speak of.

“Well uh, you look um, like you had a bad sleep but otherwise you seem to be in good condition. You can walk so that’s something.” The man before her was strange. He had a blue tint to his and hair and his eyes were like a cat’s. He was tall and lanky with unusually long finger nails and longer pointed ears. His clothes looked to be made out of the finest material, as they shimmered blue in the light. There was no way this person was knight. He must have been some sort of magical creature perhaps an elf. He seemed a bit familiar.

“Oh wait! I know you, don’t I? You’re the princess! Wow! So you didn’t escape the castle. You got trapped down here with the rest of us! Well it serves all those heroes right! All this time scrambling about looking for you. Threatening to kill me if I didn’t tell where you were. I never knew where you were by the way. After the castle fell I wasn’t concerned with guarding you anymore. And you’d already tried to make your escape-“

“Guarding?” she repeated back. 

“Oh right you probably don’t recognize me now that I’m in human form. So much smaller and everything. I bet you can’t guess. Here let me give you a hint!” The man took a few steps back and sucked in a deep breath puffing out his thin chest. When he tried to release it all that came tiny embers and smoke came billowing out of his mouth. Now she knew this definitely wasn’t a human. She kept up her guard in case she needed to make a quick getaway. Though after quick evaluation there was nowhere to run to.

“That use to be much more grand and terrifying. Anyway, I’m Wheatley, the dragon. Remember me now?” There was an obvious amount of surprise and confusion in her expression.

“Oh this is just my human form. All dragons have some sort of less terrifying human form. It keeps us from using too much energy when there’s not a lot food around. That brings me to why I’m here princess. This place is terrible. There is barely any food left for me, it’s always dark and awful. I’ve been sucking on potatoes just to keep myself fed. Which is not a suitable meal for a dragon. I simply do not want to stay in this castle any more. And I’d love to just escape but there are certain things in this castle that only work if humans, actual true humans use them. So I need your help and I’m sure you won’t to leave this place as much as I do. So what do you say? Wanna get out of here with me?” He offered his hand out to her.

This was almost too good to be true. Someone was offering a way out. If he was just as desperate as she was maybe she could trust him.

“Not to rush or anything but, I kind of need an answer soon.”

What do I have to loose. She placed her hand in his.

“Is that a yes.” Wheatley asked. The princess nodded. “Thank goodness!” He exclaimed. She steped out from her prison into the hallway. On either the side of them was grids and grids of more dungeon rooms but most of them had their doors open and were empty.

“Let me tell you love, I am really glad you said yes. Or else I might have had to eat you.” He chuckled. She’d stopped short at that statement.

“Well don’t look at me like that. It’s not something I’m proud of but, I’m bloody dragon! I can either eat people or large livestock. Do you see any cows around here mate?” They continued to walk through the dungeon with the princess following further behind her new escort. But he continued to talk.

“All these cells use to be filled with prisoners she collected. They were all put under a sleeping spell like you. But not too long ago they all started waking up and wondering around. Now since I’m in charge of this area I can’t have ten thousand bloody humans running about. So I try to urge them to get back in their cages before something bad happens. But of course they don’t listen to me. No one ever listens to Wheatley. Not only that but they start trying to attack me. Me! I hadn’t done anything to them! And they kept asking where you were. After a while the little buggers got so unruly I had to do something. So I tried blowing a little smoke to scare them off.” 

The princess noticed human shaped scorch marks on the walls now. She stopped short and this time didn’t take a single step. There was no way she’d trust her escape with this monster.

He looked behind and saw the princess stopped fully with her arms crossed.

“What’s wrong with you? We have to get out of here before someone notices.” He urged but she wasn’t moving.

“What is it? Can I get you something or…” she didn’t respond. “You know this would be a lot easier if you spoke up. Just tell me what’s wrong, love.” He pleaded. The Princess simply pointed to the scorch marks on the wall.

“I told you that was an accident. I was just trying to scare them off.” But she still was unconvinced.. The look on her face was one Wheatley was used to seeing. She saw him as a monster and he’d be inclined to agree with her.

“Listen, I understand that I’m probably not what you’re hoping for in a rescue honestly. Dragons and princess don’t have a history of working together obviously, but if we don’t work together to get out of here we will both die slow painful deaths I can assure you!” he chuckled nervously.

“Maybe we should get to know each other a little better. Hello, my name is Stephan but most people call me Wheatley. I am a half dragon; my mother was human and a princess as a matter of fact. So I guess that makes me a prince. Now what’s your name?” 

“…Chell” she mumbled. She was reluctant to give her whole name to this creature.

“Princess Chell? Really? That’s your name?” He almost didn’t believe it but decided not to push the topic.

“Well Princess Chell, as a gentleman I will promise not to burn, eat, or harm you in any way while we are trying to escape this castle. You have my word.” He bowed before her and offered his hand again. As much as a monster as he might have been, he would have extensive knowledge of the castle’s ins and outs. 

There’s no denying he’d be a great advantage to my getting out of here. Maybe I just need to put aside my qualms with his diet for now.

As his hand continued to hang in the air she realized the tradition he was trying to mimic.

He couldn’t really expect me to... she thought. But he wasn’t moving until he got her approval. Chell sighed, took his hand, and grudgingly kissed it. That is how princesses make formal contracts. A tradition Chell was taught early on along with a slew of other ridiculous procedures that she learned to loathe. Wheatley retracted has hand eagerly and stood back up.

“Thank you for your agreement! Now shall we be off your highness?” he smiled showing his pointed teeth.

Well I suppose I don’t have a choice in the matter now do I. She rolled her eyes as they proceeded.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Princess and her companion Continue through the castle in search of the mystical object to bring the castle back to the surface but what else will they unearth in the awful queen's throne room.

Chell aimed her wand at the wall. She began to focus all her power and will into speaking.

“Caesitas.” She commanded flicking her wrist and the wand. On the wall appeared a blue sort of hole in space. It shimmered and had a sort of wavy quality to it but it lead no where and was useless in its current state. Chell then saw her destination clear across from where she was and the path to it was nearly impassable for her or Wheatley to cross. So she aimed her wand again across the huge gap to the other side and once again summoned power into her words.

“Aurantiaco.” She commanded. There in the unreachable place an orange hole appeared contecting to the first blue one. Now their destination was just a step away. 

“You are really good at spell casting for a human.” Wheatley remarked. “I wouldn’t expect a princess like you to be this good but here you are popping portals like a pro.” He continued. Chell had quickly found that her new companion loved to talk. Since the start of their escape he chatted on endlessly on every and any topic you could imagine. Some would consider that annoying and Chell admittedly did have moments were she wished he’d stop, but it was better than listening to all the creepy sounds this castle gave off. They stepped through the portal and were instantly were on the other side of the massive passageway. 

“Right now if my memory serves me correctly, we are getting very close the center of the castle. When we get there we just have to find the scepter and raise the castle back to the surface. Then we can just walk out of here.” He beamed. Chell simply nodded showing that she understood. As the tried to go on the princess felt her knees go weak. She’d become too fatigued to move on. That last portal had taken the last bit of energy she could spare. Wheatley looked back to see Chell leaning on the wall for support. 

“Oh boy.” He rushed to her side. It was only a matter of time before this happened again. Using magic when you are only a mortal was a dangerous game to play. If you devoted your life to the trade then you eventually learned to store up energy to use for spells and learning that took years.

To be a mortal and cast spells though just meant the energy was coming from your life force. The witch queen took it upon herself to experiment on how long mortals could keep casting spells before they eventually fell dead or went mad. And to top it all off she had them run mazes and complete puzzles so they’d burn away even more of their energy. When heroes started coming to far and few in-between, the queen had to get inventive with her experiments. So she started using her captive, and honestly didn’t expect her to last long, but she quickly became the queen’s favorite plaything. She’d make her run tests for hours till she was just on the very brink of her body failing, and instead of just letting her die, she’d, in a cruel act of mercy ,send her back to her tower to rest and recover for the next bout of torture. 

After a while Chell did build up her strength and was able to last much longer than the normal hero and became much adapt at solving the puzzles. But all that testing and nearly killing her along with taunts and put down bred a white hot hatred that burned brighter with each passing day. Chell swore if ever the opportunity came where she could escape, she wouldn’t leave before killing the witch queen. One day that opportunity came, when someone left a key to her shackles and a very well detailed map.

She did everything to talk Chell out of her escape. She didn’t want to have to kill her favorite toy. But Chell never stopped. No matter how many harpies she had to run from, or pits she fell into or injuries she sustained she kept her course to that monster’s nest. She could still remember the look of surprise that washed over her face right before she died. But instead of winning her freedom she locked her own cell.

“Alright love, we have made a good amount of progress today! So what do you say we just call it a night hm? We’ll get a fresh start in the morning.” He sat her down on the floor and then sat next to her.

“So aren’t you excited? Even just a little bit.” He beamed over to her. She still gave him that look of pouting. 

“Oh come on, even you have to be excited. By this time tomorrow we’ll be free! Isn’t that just exciting!?” he chuckled again. 

“What are you gonna do when you get out hm? Marry some strong hansom knight and go back to rule your kingdom? Or maybe have a harem. I heard that is popular with princesses.” Before Wheatley cold wait on another reply that would never come a little gurgling noise interrupted the conversation. Chell covered her stomach as blood rushed to her cheeks.

“Oh you’re hungry? I suppose you should be, all that jumping around you’ve been doing today. Um let’s see… “ he began to pick through the lining of his vest.

Chell looked over curiously. Wheatley seemed to have endless supply of rubbish that he kept with him. Dragons always had terrible habits of hoarding treasure and other things of great worth that they stole, but Wheatley seemed to carry much less valuable things. Chell spotted old silk and scraps of fine leather among this dragon’s hoard along with many potatoes. But on the other hand Chell saw things that were a little more intriguing, like ruby rings and blackened silver bracelets. By the way these items were decorated and shaped it was obviously they originally belonged to a woman, the most interesting being a tiara studded with rubies. She only caught glimpses of these things and didn’t want think about what poor girl he stole them from.

“Ah ha! Here it is! I picked out this special just for you. A really big potato!” He pulled an admittedly impressive sized root vegetable.

“I found it rooting around yesterday and thought you might like it.” She took it from his hands. It took two hands just to hold it. It definitely wasn’t the most expensive gift she’d ever gotten as a princess but there was no denying the sweet gesture.

“Well aren’t you gonna eat it?” Wheatley questioned. She looked at him for a moment. 

“Fire.” She simply stated. Wheatley was confused for a moment before he understood what she was trying to say.

“Oh you cook potatoes! That’s why they taste so horrible; you’re supposed to cook them.” He sucked in a deep breath puffing out his chest and letting smoke billow through his nose. Chell took a step back from the dragon man as he prepared to release his furry. But for all his huffing and puffing Wheatley could only manage a blast of hot air the potato. Which was fine. A full inferno would have reduced the princess’s meal to ashes. This massive release of super-heated air cooked the potato perfectly, crisping the skin, and causing it to burst just down the center.

“That is growing weaker by the day.” Wheatley said concerned. Chell was careful to pick up her meal without burning herself Wheatley passed her a scrap of leather so she could handle the hot patoto. Then he passed her a bit of salt and a dash of pepper that was left over in two silver shakers he kept in his possession and finally a silver fork. Chell dug into it ravenously and without hesitation.

“Do you know what happens when I dragon isn’t able to blow a fire anymore?” he asked of the princess. She looked up from her simple meal. She saw a sort of sadder look in his eyes.

“They die you know.” Chell widened her eyes. She had no idea his situation was so dire .

“I don’t have much time left obviously.”he mumbled somberly. Then he perked up. 

“It’s a good thing we’re getting out of here tomorrow then! The first thing I’m gonna do when I leave this god awful place is, I’m gonna take to the skies fly as fast and as far and I can and the first herd of sheep or goats or anything I come across I’m just going to eat them all. Really just pig out.”

Chell thought that was a very simple and understandable wish. It never occurred to her hard it must be for a monster of his size and power so try and survive on what must’ve been to him, just crumbs. Even more she realized what it must take to keep himself from eating her. 

“But you know what’s strange? We haven’t run into a single other magical creature at all besides those damn annoying harpies. Those are some creepy birds with those red eyes and that absolute whiteness. And then they move around in those massive creepy flocks.” He shuddered. Chell couldn’t help but nod in agreement. In her times testing with the queen she was often subject to the harpies and their ripping talons and screeching calls. They had the appearance of perfectly alabaster humans but they were soulless killing machines with rings and eyes like blood. They’d come across quite a few since traveling but they made short work of them.

“Eat them.” Chell stated. Certainly enough abundance of those creatures could keep Wheatley fed.

“Oh no! I’ve tried to eat a whole lot of them. The little buggers made me sick to my stomach and ended up chucking them right back up. Happens every time. But as I was saying there used to be a whole world of other creatures here. Fairies, elves, minotaurs, satyrs, even a phoenix . But I can’t find much of anyone any more. I wonder what if she had them all killed or if they just died off somehow.” He looked over to see that the princess had fallen asleep.

“See you in the morning then..” He finished.

Long after the embers of their fire had died away and the castle was smothered in the darkness Chell awoke briefly, only to open her eyes. Every so often she’d wake up confused that she wasn’t looked away in her tower and then her memory would return.

Through the blackness Chell saw a pair of strange blue lights pointed directly at her. They were mystic in nature and focused right on her body. Every once in a while the lights would fade out and then reappear almost rhythmically. 

He’s hungry, nearly starving. Will tonight finally be the night he snaps? This certainly wasn’t the first time she’d caught him staring at her contemplating would it be worth it to eat her. She could hear the low rumbling of a huge beast growling.

In the distance darkness something made a slight noise causing the lights to switch their focus off of the princess. With a powerful gust of wind the lights disappeared into the castle somewhere. Chell let out a breath of relief thankful She allowed sleep to wash over herself slowly just in case the creature returned.

The next morning, the princess awoke again but this time more she was ready to face the day. She saw Wheatley across from her, sitting up ears pointed up, turned away from her looking into the distance.

“Ahem.” She half coughed in order to get his attention. He turned around immediately a bit startled by the noise.

“Oh! Hi! You’re awake now! Had a good night sleep? Good! Now we’re ready to face the day fully rested, so what do you say we get out of here?” She of course said nothing but it was perfectly understood by the both of them that it was time to leave.  
“Well let’s get going then!” He chirped. Chell stood up from the ground and reproduced the magic wand. She made sure to keep it close to her at all times. 

As they wandered through a more forested part of the castle it became much harder to traverse through the corridors. 

“It’s ashamed how much this place was allowed to let go like this. Just lazy I tell you.” The hallways began to become more grandiose and decorated underneath all the grime and plants. Large statues towered over the duo as they carefully avoided more dilapidated parts of the floor to not fall into a the depths of the castle. They were wandering for several minutes before they came to a giant ornate door. Chell unfazed by the door’s presence and grandness simply began to stride up to it not batting an eye before Wheatley stopped her. Running around on front of her path, effectively blocking it, he placed a clawed hand on her shoulder.

“Whoa, there lady! I’m in a hurry to leave just as much as you are but please wait second.” Chell looked at his hand and then promptly back up to him in a way that made him retract it very quickly.

“Past those doors is the throne room where that manic lives. Now there’s a chance, small chance, that she could still be alive in there. If she is she will kill us both. So let’s just be careful.” He warned. Chell nodded though completely unconcerned. She knew first hand that the queen was dead and not coming back. But still she understood Wheatley’s fear. Such a vile woman it seemed as though she’d never die. She had enough bitterness and spite to last for several more life times.

Both of them grabbed onto the large door and began to try and push it open. It slowly gave way to their advances and revealed the throne room in ruins. It was once a large grand circular place decorated with mysterious paintings of people and royalty long dead. With velvet red carpet lining the walls and the strong odor of old perfume sprung from every pore in order to mask the even stronger odor of blood and death that came from every pore. The queen’s throne was a elevating seat that could no longer hold its flight since she was dead. So it lay cracked against the far back wall of the room Just beside it laid what was left of the queen. Large stone fragments of a statue is all she was now. And the red of the room had faded into a brown of most unappealing hue. Walls were left bare and exposed in some section where the velvet had simply had fallen away into decay. Plants were starting to overtake this room as well.

Being this room made Chell feel the same as a child who had completed school . It once seemed to consume her ever being but now it was just a room empty and sad and so much smaller than it seemed back then.

“Ugh, what a proper monster. “ Wheatley spat. Chell looked up at him. She thought that she might have been the only one who hated her but from what she heard of Wheatley’s jabbering, barley anyone in this castle could stand her. The harpies did her biding simply cause they lived in fear of her and were bound to the commands of whoever wielded the scepter of aperture. 

“I can still hardly believe that a human did her in.” He mused. “Just killed her and ran off leaving the rest of here to die how selfish.” He rolled his eyes. 

“Well no point in staring. We need to find that scepter if we want to get out of here.” Chell nodded and they split up to wander around the room. Since the chamber was very nearly bare it should have been easy to spot out the rod but that proved untrue. It seemed to have vanished from the room with no trace to where it could be in this huge castle.

“It has to be here! If anyone touched it the castle would’ve raised itself. But that witch could’ve hidden it deep within the castle somewhere before she died. It would take us years to search this whole bloody castle!” He wailed from across the room. Chell on the other hand found a hole next to the crumbled queen in her throne. It was small. Just enough to see through. Down in the depths she could see something sparkling almost glowing just beneath the chamber they were in.

“Ahem.” She cleared her throat again to grab the dragon’s attention. 

“Hm, what is it love? Did you find something.” He whisked himself over to where she was.

“Oh brilliant! It’s just down there then. Alright no point gawking at it. Let’s get the bloody thing.” He affirmed.

They promptly left the throne room and managed to find a way to the floor right below it with the help of Chell’s portaling abilities of course. These secret corridors and passage ways that ran right under the center of the castle and it’s throne room were not very well lit at all. Torches and illumination spells were far and few in between. Here large sections of hall way were completely falling apart. Chell had to make large leaps just to clear them. With Wheatley of course providing the bright light of his flame when she needed it.

The scepter was before them now. Gleaming in what little light was there. On its rod were many gems a row of each down the rod it in sinister splendor.

“Ok, alright, this thing so I’ve heard is sensitive. We can’t touch it wrong or something really bad might happen to the castle. If you even look at it wrong all hell will break loose. So don’t look at it. Don’t touch it just keep your eyes closed in your hands to yourself. Well you have to keep your eyes open to walk I suppose but just keep your eyes down on the ground understand.” She rolled her eyes at him.

“I don’t need your attitude missy.” He said. “Now I am going to go over there and pick it up so just stay back. Could be dangerous. We might die.” Wheatley approached the scepter slowly tip toeing up to it. Once he was close to it he carefully picked it up.

“Alright, I am currently holding the scepter in my hand. Everything is fine.” Lights flashed on in this strange corridor from apparently nowhere. The whole piece of floor they were standing on began to rotate. Chell looked back at Wheatley in panic.

“It’s alright! Just a little bit of spinning, we’d be in serious trouble if it started…” The little platform as it was then began to float back up through the newly illuminated chamber. The ceiling above them opened up to allow them to pass. Now, the two of them had arrived back in the throne room but the large stones began to glow and move shift into the form of the queen. 

Both the princess and the dragon watched in fear as the last pebble moved into place and the queen once again breathed back into her dreadful vigor. Her narrow hands with long terrible fingers began to twitch and curl with and eagerness to continue to spread misery. Her face though re awaked still looked as cold and hard as stone, perfectly preserved by her magic to keep her youth. Her pointy nose took in with great joy the mixed scent of perfume and death. That awful chest that protected that cruel and once more beating black hole she dared called a heart, expanded and collapsed with abysmal rhythm. The scepter arose from out of the stunned hands of the dragon and loftily floated across the room to her fearsome form. She opened her eyes slowly, revealing the black pools of despair each dotted with a yellow flame from some gruesome fire. The queen was always dressed in an half mourning dress accented with a gold silk belt.

She raised her hand and grasped her mighty scepter once again establishing her mastery over her domain of horrors. She looked at the two other people in the room and sneered. Wheatley was cowering but he stood in front of Chell as true gentlemen would. Chell didn’t cower but her stomach turned with fear and hatred. She stood tall against this threat keeping eye contact.

“Well if it isn’t my old friend.” The queen’s face softened a bit. “How have you been? Because I’ve been having a joyous time being dead.” She stepped closer to her “friend” with a murderous gait. 

A realization clicked on in Wheatley’s head.

“Wuh- Wait a moment! You know her?” He stammered at the princess. He looked back at the queen who was still camly coming towards them.

“Uh just stay b-back madam. We are just passing through and we mean you no harm.” But she kept coming as if he said nothing.

“Listen if you keep this up, I’ll have to get nasty with you queen or no queen.” He mustered up some false bravery from somewhere deep in his guts.

“I’m w-warning you! I am real muh-monster when I need to be.” But she kept true. 

“Alright you asked for this missy!” he tried to let out a monstrous roar but instead her awfulness flung the poor weakened dragon against a wall. A flurry of dust and foulness covered him.

 

“Now, let’s get back to business shall we? We have so much to catch up on and only an eternity to complete it.” She began use her magic on Chell lifting her high into the air. The Queen opened a dark portal underneath her squirming feet. They held eye contact only for a moment before she released the princess back into the castle depths…


End file.
